Russian scientists from the Federal Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have created a pilot-industrial fully automated vertical farm using dynamic LED lighting, which makes it possible to produce virus-free potato seed material under fully controlled conditions, achieving up to six harvests per year. The ability to receive standardized products of stable quality and regardless of natural and climatic conditions has already made this development in demand among large agricultural producers.
The automated vertical farm is an applied result of the Smart City Farm project launched in 2020. The complex for the accelerated reproduction of the seed fund of agricultural crops combines modern digital technologies and methods of organic farming. In a vertical city farm, controlled conditions are created: dynamic lighting, an automatic irrigation system, the air is purified of pathogens, and the plant receives nutrients from a special substrate. A unique feature of the innovative farm is individually adjustable LED lighting with different spectral composition, preferred for specific varieties and for different periods of plant growth.
The complex allows you to grow products with specified properties under controlled conditions on an industrial scale with more than tenfold excess of productivity from 1 sq. m per year. This was made possible by unlocking the natural potential of varieties in a controlled vertical farm environment that does not depend on climate, weather, or the risks of seed contamination.
“We wanted to create, on the one hand, a universal and, on the other, a multifunctional tool that would allow us to reveal the natural potential of varieties, to increase their productivity and quality indicators. We used nature-like technologies and controlled LED lighting without introducing any genetic modifications. Our complex is based on an extensive base of fundamental research of the Federal Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and at the same time is economically beneficial for the industrial cultivation of demanded crops. In addition, it is a completely environmentally friendly and waste-free production ", - said the head of the project, Ph.D. Vasily Zotov.
“Another feature of the vertical farm and the technology of controlled vegetation developed by us is its 'plasticity' and versatility - the system can be easily rebuilt for a specific task, select and automatically adjust the necessary lighting and other parameters for growing target plants - potatoes, beets or even wheat. The vertical farms existing on the market today are not intended for growing demanded crops - this is not economically profitable, the existing technologies pay off only for expensive crops, for example, strawberries. Our development is completely profitable and allows you to grow crops with low margins on an industrial scale, ”noted a senior researcher at the Federal Research Center for Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a specialist in the development and agricultural support of the project, Ph.D. Dmitry Kravchenko. The project already has its first commercial orders from large agricultural producers and potato processors. The scientists' plans for the next year are the development of a technology for controlled vegetation of essential oil and vegetable crops (tomato, pepper).